Firstly, we were on Albanian TV! Whilst in Vlore, which is the old capital, we went to the National Museum of Independence. This museum "reflects the stern struggle оf the Albanian’s fоr freedom аnd independence, the events thаt brought аbоut the raising оf the flag оn the 28th November l912, when Albania wаs proclaimed аn independent state.". When we arrived there was a film crew outside and they interviewed our English tour guide Jill, and then filmed us as we entered the museum.
This was shown on Albanian TV the next day, on Real RTV Vlore channel, "Turista ende në Vlorë!" "Foreign tourists visit Vlora! Vlora in perennial tourism! The RTV youtube link and also the FaceBook link.
A couple of days later we met the lead lady polyphonic singer of Himares. Iso-polyphonic singing in southern Albania have between 1 and 7 singers. Albanian folk iso-polyphony is on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list. The lady, Katina Beleri, had been scheduled to sing for us in the old fort of Himare, but unfortunately for us she had to go to mainland Greece. To make up for this, she very kindly agreed to give us an impromptu performance in the restaurant when we were having dinner on evening. After singing a couple of solos, she then invited some of the group to act as the back singers -
Information on the Albanian Iso Polyphony on UNESCO multimedia archives.
We stayed in Himare a couple of days, and it had been planned for us to visit a school. But for some reason we were not allowed to go. As we travelled south, we stopped at Borsh. Whilst we were having a coffee, our guide Viktor managed to get permission to visit the school in Borsh. Firstly we spoke to some students in the corridor. They were amazingly confident in speaking to us and spoke very good English - they are taught English by an Albanian teacher and also have a volunteer teacher from England.
The lady in the white coat is another teacher but spoke no English at all. Note the painting of Mother Teresa on the wall, she was an Albanian - Indian and was born in (the modern day) Skopje which is now the capital of Macedonia. The 2 girls on the right were particularly confident in their English. We then went into a classroom where they were studying science
When we were in Vlore to drove up to the top of the hill overlooking the town and there are great views. We also went to the Bektashi 'temple'. At first the dervish wasn't too happy about our arrival and didn't want to let us in, but after a while he disappeared and changed into his dervish clothes and agreed to talk to us. He said the main baba is away, so he was left in charge. Bektashi is a form of Islam. Albania has no official religion, 2.09% of the population are Bektashi Muslims. The Bektashi order is a Sufi dervish order. They eat pork and drink alcohol, but the baba doesn't marry. The Bektashi don't venerate Mohamed, but Ali, his cousin.
A dervish grave
Bektashi Order on Wikipedia.
Must have been an interesting trip, full of variety. You look great in the picture with the singer!
ReplyDeleteAlbania is certainly an interesting place and well worth a visit. Next time I want to go to the north which should be very different.
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